Cuyahoga County's persistent population loss
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Cuyahoga County's population continues to tumble, per the latest U.S. Census estimates analyzed by Axios' Alex Fitzpatrick.
Driving the news: Across 88 Ohio counties, Cuyahoga ranked 85th in population percentage change from July 2020 to July 2022.
- Only Scioto and Lawrence counties on the Ohio/Kentucky border, and Athens County, home to Ohio University, lost more people during that timespan.
State of play: All major Ohio metro areas (including Cleveland) saw more residents move away than move in, a trend caused by rising housing costs and more flexible remote work.
Yes, but: Cuyahoga County's population decline was the most pronounced among the urban counties, with more deaths than births and far more domestic outmigration than international immigration.
- Cuyahoga County welcomed more than 3,300 international immigrants in 2022, up from 1,200 in 2021 and only 100 in 2020.
- But that failed to make up for the nearly 25,000 people who moved away in 2021 and 2022.
Zoom out: Ohio lost 0.35% of its population in the two-year time frame, all while an expensive national marketing campaign trumpeted the state as a cheaper alternative to coastal metro areas.
The intrigue: Columbus' suburban counties, where the population continually grew over the two-year period, remain a notable exception, Axios Columbus reports.
- Ohio's top two counties in population growth were Union and Delaware, with Licking County and its under-construction Intel plant coming in at No. 7.
- These counties are emergent hotbeds for new warehouses, data centers and other major development projects attracting thousands of workers.